RAGING SEAS Chapter 56
A/N:- Here… so I'm not going to go in-depth about the entire praetorship of Percy's… just imagine that entire scene in your heads…. I'm straightaway skipping to the war with Gaea… like the final battle in BOO… and uh… I don't have much time to write the whole thing… due to some personal things… long story short… I got poisoned…. Good news is my immune system is fighting against it… the doctors have helped me… and another good news is the poison was mild and in a really minimal dose… so I'm weak… tho… I can recover… doctor said with my rapid healing…. ( yeah I'm like a cheap wolverine that can heal a broken arm in 5 days to 7 days… and a knife cut in 1 hour…) I'm going to be all right in 2 days… tho all that is good… I feel like I won't be getting better… it's an internal feeling… I feel like my end is near or that cringey shit…. But yeah… so, idk… how long I can update…. Tho I should be fine… yeah… if you get the next update… if you read another chapter from my side… then I'm alive… if not… then pray for my soul… I'm going to come back to haunt you guys…
Anyway…. Here's the 56th chapter!
If Jason hadn't been strapped to the mast with one of Leo's twenty-point safety harnesses, he would have disintegrated. As it was, his stomach tried to stay behind in Greece and all the air was sucked out of his lungs.
The sky turned black. The ship rattled and creaked. The deck cracked like thin ice under Jason's legs and, with a sonic boom, the Argo II hurtled out of the clouds.
'Jason!' Leo shouted. 'Hurry!'
His fingers felt like melted plastic, but Jason managed to undo the straps.
Leo was lashed to the control console, desperately trying to right the ship as they spiralled downward in free fall. The sails were on fire. Festus creaked in alarm. A catapult peeled away and lifted into the air. Centrifugal force sent the shields flying off the railings like metal Frisbees.
Wider cracks opened in the deck as Jason staggered towards the hold, using the winds to keep himself anchored.
If he couldn't make it to the others …
Then the hatch burst open. Frank and Hazel stumbled through, pulling on the guide rope they'd attached to the mast. Piper, Annabeth, and Hector followed, all of them looking disoriented.
'Go!' Leo yelled. 'Go, go, go!'
For once, Leo's tone was deadly serious.
They were hurtling through the air when suddenly they stopped like the entire ship was frozen in the air, the flying debris and pieces that halted as if someone had stopped time.
But the demigods could move.
Jason looked around in surprise until he saw a black figure floating in the air, his hood removed showing off his handsome face and his green and black eyes. His long hair blowing to the side.
"Percy?" Annabeth, Hector, and Jason looked up at the figure in awe.
"Hey guys," Percy waved at them cheerfully. "' Sup Praetor?"
Piper and Leo had widened eyes as they saw the all-powerful Roman praetor in front of their eyes, while Frank and Hazel just waved back.
Percy smirked and then snapped his fingers as six demigods vanished from sight.
Then he looked back at Leo, did a one-finger salute, and twirled around in the air as he fell down, as the ship went on hurtling through the air with Leo on it.
On the ground, Jason saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills – cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others he couldn't even name – surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion. The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.
Giant eagles circled Jason, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.
Frank turned into grey dragon and flew alongside with his passengers, Hazel, Hector, and Annabeth.
'Hazel!' Jason yelled. 'Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don't merge with the rest of the demigods –'
'On it!' Hazel said. 'Go, Frank!'
Dragon Frank veered to the left with Annabeth in one claw yelling, 'Let's get 'em!' and Hector in the other claw screaming, 'I hate flying!'
Piper and Jason veered right towards the summit of Half-Blood Hill.
Jason's heart lifted when he saw Nico di Angelo on the front lines with the Greeks, slashing his
way through a crowd of two-headed men. A few feet away, Reyna sat astride a new pegasus, her sword drawn. She shouted orders at the legion, and the Romans obeyed without question as if she'd never been away.
Jason didn't see Octavian anywhere. Neither did he see a colossal earth goddess laying waste to the world.
He and Piper landed on the hill, their swords drawn, and a cheer went up from the Greeks and the Romans.
'About time!' Reyna called. 'Glad you could join us!'
With a start, Jason realized she was addressing Piper, not him.
Piper grinned. 'We had some giants to kill!"
'Excellent!' Reyna returned the smile. 'Help yourself to some barbarians.'
'Why, thank you!' Then Piper added. "And we also had a little help from your boyfriend."
"Ah, yes," Reyna said. "I did tell him to go help you."
"Well, thank you for that!"
The two girls launched into battle side by side.
Nico nodded to Jason as if they'd just seen each other five minutes ago, then went back to turning two-headed men into no-headed corpses. 'Good timing. Where's the ship?'
Jason pointed. The Argo II streaked across the sky in a ball of fire, shedding burning chunks of mast, hull, and armament. Jason didn't see how even fireproof Leo could survive in that inferno, but he had to hope that Percy had done something to help him.
'Gods,' Nico said. 'Is everyone okay?'
'Leo …' Jason's voice broke. 'He said he had a plan.'
The comet disappeared behind the western hills. Jason waited with dread for the sound of an explosion, but he heard nothing over the roar of battle.
Nico met his eyes. 'He'll be fine, he has Percy.'
'Sure."
'But just in case … For Leo.'
'For Leo,' Jason agreed. They charged into the fight.
Jason's anger gave him renewed strength. The Greeks and Romans slowly pushed back the enemies. Wild centaurs toppled. Wolf-headed men howled as they were cut to ashes.
More monsters kept appearing – karpoi grain spirits swirling out of the grass, gryphons diving from the sky, lumpy clay humanoids that made Jason think of evil Play-Doh men.
'They're ghosts with earthen shells!' Nico warned. 'Don't let them hit you!'
Obviously Gaia had kept some surprises in reserve.
At one point, Will Solace, the lead camper for Apollo, ran up to Nico and said something in his ear. Over the yelling and clashing of blades, Jason couldn't hear the words.
'Jason, I have to go!' Nico said.
Jason didn't really understand, but he nodded, and Will and Nico dashed off into the fray.
A moment later, a squad of Hermes campers gathered around Jason for no apparent reason.
Connor Stoll grinned. 'What's up, Grace?'
'I'm good,' Jason said. 'You?'
Connor dodged an ogre club and stabbed a grain spirit, which exploded in a cloud of wheat. 'Yeah, can't complain. Nice day for it.'
Reyna yelled, 'Eiaculare flammas!' and a wave of flaming arrows arced over the legion's shield wall, destroying a platoon of ogres. The Roman ranks moved forward, impaling centaurs and trampling wounded ogres under their bronze-tipped boots.
Somewhere downhill, Jason heard Frank Zhang yell in Latin: 'Repellere equites!'
A massive herd of centaurs parted in a panic as the legion's other three cohorts ploughed through in perfect formation, their spears bright with monster blood. Frank marched before them. On the left flank, riding Arion, Hazel beamed with pride.
'Ave, Praetor Zhang!' Reyna called. "Though, how does that work with Percy also being alive?"
'Ave, Praetor Ramírez-Arellano!' Frank said. "I don't actually know… but Jason somehow did that, and I think Percy must've known about it and he didn't say anything… Anyway, let's do this. Legion, CLOSE RANKS!'
A cheer went up among the Romans as the five cohorts melded into one massive killing machine. Frank pointed his sword forward and, from the golden eagle standard, tendrils of lightning swept across the enemy, turning several hundred monsters to toast.
'Legion, cuneum formate!' Reyna yelled. 'Advance!'
Another cheer on Jason's right as Hector and Annabeth reunited with the forces of Camp Half-Blood.
'Greeks!' Hector yelled. 'Let's, um, fight stuff!'
They yelled like banshees and charged.
Jason grinned. He loved the Greeks. They had no organization whatsoever, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.
Then suddenly, the same black figure from before crashed into the ground, landing in a superhero landing, his jacket sweeping around him.
He stood up and raised his hand, as a wave of earth rose from the ground and swallowed up a dozen giants.
The campers looked at the figure in awe until the figure turned around to show Percy wearing a cheeky smile.
"So, you still want to… um… fight stuff?" He asked, raising his arms to both sides.
The greeks burst into cheers and with renewed vigor they charged the monsters.
Percy then grabbed a giant and then threw him at an upcoming wave of monsters, disintegrating half of the army.
But where one went down, two more rose up to take it's place.
Jason was feeling good about the battle, except for two, no three big questions: Where was Leo? And where was Gaia?
Unfortunately, he got the second answer first.
Under his feet, the earth rippled as if Half-Blood Hill had become a giant water mattress. Demigods fell. Ogres slipped. Centaurs charged face-first into the grass.
'AWAKE', a voice boomed all around them.
A hundred yards away, at the crest of the next hill, the grass and soil swirled upward like the point of a massive drill. The column of earth thickened into the twenty-foot-tall figure of a woman – her dress woven from blades of grass, her skin as white as quartz, her hair brown and tangled like tree roots.
'Little fools.' Gaia the Earth Mother opened her pure green eyes. 'The paltry magic of your statue cannot contain me.'
As she said it, Jason realized why Gaia hadn't appeared until now. The Athena Parthenos had been protecting the demigods, holding back the wrath of the earth, but even Athena's might could only last so long against a primordial goddess.
Fear as palpable as a cold front washed over the demigod army.
'Stand fast!' Piper shouted, her charmspeak clear and loud. 'Greeks and Romans, we can fight her together!'
Gaia laughed. She spread her arms and the earth bent towards her – trees tilting, bedrock groaning, soil rippling in waves. Jason rose on the wind, but all around him monsters and demigods alike started to sink into the ground. One of Octavian's onagers capsized and disappeared into the side of the hill.
'The whole earth is my body,' Gaia boomed. 'How would you fight the goddess of –'
FOOOOMP!
In a flash of bronze, Gaia was swept off the hillside, snarled in the claws of a fifty-ton metal dragon.
Festus, reborn, rose into the sky on gleaming wings, spewing fire from his maw triumphantly. As he ascended, the rider on his back got smaller and more difficult to discern, but Leo's grin was unmistakable.
'Pipes! Jason!' he shouted down. 'You coming? The fight is up here!'
As soon as Gaia achieved liftoff, the ground solidified.
Demigods stopped sinking, though many were still buried up to their waists. Sadly, the monsters seemed to be digging themselves out more quickly. They charged the Greek and Roman ranks, taking advantage of the demigods' disorganization.
Percy slammed the ground with his foot as the earth around the demigods cracked and they rose to their feets.
Jason put his arms around Piper's waist. He was about to take off when Hector yelled, 'Wait! Frank can fly the rest of us up there! We can all –'
'No, man,' Jason said. 'They need you here. There's still an army to defeat. Besides, the prophecy –'
'He's right.' Frank gripped Percy's arm. 'You have to let them do this, Hector. It's like Annabeth's quest in Rome. Or Hazel at the Doors of Death. This part can only be them or Percy.'
Hector obviously didn't like it, but at that moment a flood of monsters swept over the Greek forces. Annabeth called to him, 'Hey! Problem over here!' The son of Poseidon ran to join her.
Frank and Hazel turned to Jason. They raised their arms in the Roman salute, then ran off to regroup the legion.
Jason and Piper spiralled upward on the wind.
'I've got the cure,' Piper murmured like a chant. 'It'll be fine. I've got the cure.'
Jason realized she'd lost her sword somehow during the battle, but he doubted it would matter. Against Gaia, a sword would do no good. This was about storm and fire … and a third power, Piper's charmspeak, which would hold them together. Last winter, Piper had slowed the power of Gaia at the Wolf House, helping to free Hera from a cage of earth. Now she would have an even bigger job.
As they ascended, Jason gathered the wind and clouds around him. The sky responded with frightening speed. Soon they were in the eye of a maelstrom. Lightning burned his eyes. Thunder made his teeth vibrate.
Directly above them, Festus grappled with the earth goddess. Gaia kept disintegrating, trying to trickle back to the ground, but the winds kept her aloft. Festus sprayed her with flames, which seemed to force her into solid form. Meanwhile, from Festus's back, Leo blasted the goddess with flames of his own and hurled insults. 'Potty Sludge! Dirt Face! THIS IS FOR MY MOTHER, ESPERANZA VALDEZ!'
His whole body was wreathed in fire. Rain hung in the stormy air, but it only sizzled and steamed around him.
Jason zoomed towards them.
Gaia turned into loose white sand, but Jason summoned a squadron of venti who churned around her, constraining her in a cocoon of wind.
Gaia fought back. When she wasn't disintegrating, she lashed out with shrapnel blasts of stone and soil that Jason barely deflected. Stoking the storm, containing Gaia, keeping himself and Piper aloft … Jason had never done anything so difficult. He felt like he was covered in lead weights, trying to swim with only his legs while holding a car over his head. But he had to keep Gaia off the ground.
That was the secret Kym had hinted at when they spoke at the bottom of the sea.
Long ago, Ouranos the sky god had been tricked down to the earth by Gaia and the Titans. They'd held him on the ground so he couldn't escape and, with his powers weakened from being so far from his home territory, they'd been able to cut him apart.
Now Jason, Leo and Piper had to reverse that scenario. They had to keep Gaia away from her source of power – the earth – and weaken her until she could be defeated.
Together they rose. Festus creaked and groaned with the effort, but he continued to gain altitude. Jason still didn't understand how Leo had managed to remake the dragon. Then he recalled all the hours Leo had spent working inside the hull over the last few weeks. Leo must have been planning this all along and building a new body for Festus within the framework of the ship.
He must have known in his gut that the Argo II would eventually fall apart. A ship turning into a dragon … Jason supposed it was no more amazing than the dragon turning into a suitcase back in Quebec.
However it had happened, Jason was elated to see their old friend in action once more.
'YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!' Gaia crumbled to sand, only to get blasted by more flames. Her body melted into a lump of glass, shattered, then re-formed again as human. 'I AM ETERNAL!'
'Eternally annoying!' Leo yelled, and he urged Festus higher.
Jason and Piper rose with them.
'Get me closer,' Piper urged. 'I need to be next to her.'
'Piper, the flames and the shrapnel –'
'It's fine,' A new voice said from their side as Jason turned around to see Percy hovering in the air. "She's under my protection.
The son of Jupiter looked at Percy with a look of respect in his eyed and nodded.
Jason moved in until they were right next to Gaia. The winds encased the goddess, keeping her solid, but it was all Jason could do to contain her blasts of sand and soil.
That was Percy's job, all the shrapnel that was hurtling toward Piper got destroyed few inches before impact.
His eyes were glowing with power that matched the power in Gaia's eyes.
Her eyes were solid green, like all nature had been condensed into a few spoonfuls of organic matter.
'FOOLISH CHILDREN!' Her face contorted with miniature earthquakes and mudslides.
'You are so weary,' Piper told the goddess, her voice radiating kindness and sympathy. 'Aeons of pain and disappointment weigh on you.'
'SILENCE!'
The force of Gaia's anger was so great that Jason momentarily lost control of the wind. He would've dropped into free fall, but Percy caught him and Piper in the air.
Jason was amazed to see that the son of Poseidon had more control over the winds than Jason himself.
Even more amazingly, Piper kept her focus. 'Millennia of sorrow,' she told Gaia. 'Your husband Ouranos was abusive. Your grandchildren the gods overthrew your beloved children the Titans. Your other children, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed Ones, were thrown into Tartarus. You are so tired of heartache.'
'LIES!' Gaia crumbled into a tornado of soil and grass, but her essence seemed to churn more sluggishly.
If they gained any more altitude, the air would be too thin to breathe. Jason would be too weak to control it. Piper's talk of exhaustion affected him, too, sapping his strength, making his body feel heavy. If not for Percy, the two would've fallen right on the ground.
'What you want,' Piper continued, 'more than victory, more than revenge … you want rest. You are so weary, so incomprehensibly tired of the ungrateful mortals and immortals.'
'I – YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME – YOU CANNOT –'
'You want one thing,' Piper said soothingly, her voice resonating through Jason's bones. 'One word. You want permission to close your eyes and forget your troubles. You – want – SLEEP.'
Gaia solidified into human form. Her head lolled, her eyes closed, and she went limp in Festus's claw.
Unfortunately, Jason started to black out, too.
The wind was dying. The storm dissipated. Dark spots danced in his eyes.
Percy's eyes glowed even more as they floated in air.
'Leo! Percy!' Piper gasped for breath. 'We only have a few seconds. My charmspeak won't –'
'I know!' Leo looked like he was made of fire. Flames rippled beneath his skin, illuminating his skull. Festus steamed and glowed. 'I can't contain the fire much longer. I'll vaporize her. Don't worry. But you guys need to leave.'
'No!' Jason said. 'We have to stay with you. Piper's got the cure. Leo, you can't –'
'Hey.' Leo grinned, which was unnerving in the flames, his teeth like molten silver ingots. 'I told you I had a plan. When are you going to trust me? Besides, I have Percy. We've already decided everything. And by the way – I love you guys.'
The son of Hephaestus looked at Percy who nodded and snapped his fingers as Jason and Piper fell.
Jason had no strength to stop it. He held on to Piper as she cried Leo's name, then Percy's, and they plummeted earthwards.
Percy looked at Leo and nodded as he glowed with raw power.
Leo was burning and Percy was glowing an ethereal blue as the winds whipped around Gaia as Festus soared higher in the air.
The earth mother was dissipating into dust as Percy created a ball of water around her, keeping the disintegrating primordial in the sky.
Leo was helping in that and so was Percy.
Percy's dust technique wasn't working that effectively on the goddess as she woke up.
Gaia's eyes opened and they glowed with even more power, sending a powerful wave of shrapnel in the direction of the demigods.
Percy leaped in front of Leo, as a powerful blast hit in front of him and dissipated into the air.
"You dirt-faced bitch!" Percy yelled and emitted pure godly power, something that no regular demigod has ever been able to do.
The clouds evaporated and the birds in the air disintegrated as entire mountains came crumbling down.
Right now, the son of Poseidon was at the peak of his power, his hair raising in the air.
He had wrapped the earth goddess in an air cocoon, crushing Gaia with mere power.
Leo could only look at the demigod in front of him in awe.
He had known he was powerful, but those tales were of the past. Present-day Percy was easily the strongest demigod ever to exist.
Percy yelled. "Leo! We both might die on this one… You have the physician's cure, right?"
It was difficult for Leo to answer over the whipping winds as he nodded.
"Good, fulfil your promise to Calypso for me, will ya?" Percy said as he turned back around.
Leo was confused and scared. "Why does this sound like a goodbye?"
Percy just smiled as the son of Hephaestus' flames increased, disintegrating the earth goddess again.
Percy kept crushing her with his air cocoon until she became a small ball-like structure.
"Say sorry and goodbye to Reyna for me," The son of Poseidon said to Leo with a sad tone in his voice.
"No—" Leo's voice cracked. "You can't die! Didn't you promise Reyna something?"
He pointed to the golden ring that was flying around in Percy's camp necklace.
Percy sighed. "You promised Calypso something as well… that's a much bigger oath to fulfil."
Then he spread his arms out and the ball erupted, shredding Gaia to a zillion tiny pieces. The entire sky glowed gold as the last Leo saw of the son of Poseidon was his smiling face with blood trickling down the side of his mouth, before the entire world went black.
-FLASHBACK-START-
Percy was sitting with Reyna in the Praetor's room, the daughter of Bellona sitting, blushing furiously while Percy was lounging on his seat, with the same red expression on his face.
He had just given Reyna an apple and when the daughter of Bellona cut it into two pieces for them to share, she found a gold ring with a diamond embedded and the words 'erunt in perpetuum' that literally translated to 'Be Mine Forever'.
Reyna looked at Percy in shock as he just rubbed his neck and looked down in embarrassment.
Reyna took the ring out and slid it on her finger, blushing furiously.
Finally, she spoke up. "Thanks, Percy."
Percy just smiled at her and said. "I love you."
"I love you too," Reyna said and put her arms around Percy's neck, kissing his lips softly.
After a few minutes, they broke apart as Percy had a pained expression on his face.
"I have something to tell you," Percy said. "I'm going to die in the final battle."
"What?" Reyna asked.
Percy sighed. "The last battle with Gaia, and the last line of the prophecy… they can't win alone, they need me… and I'm afraid… because fire is of course that Valdez kid… and storm is going to be me."
Reyna looked at him in shock. "But you guys have the physician's cure, so you can be saved, right?"
"I can… but Leo has to live… he has to fulfil a broken promise, my broken promise."
Reyna looked at him again, realization in her eyes. "Can't you do something else? I would rather spend my last moments with you, than spending an entire eternity without you!"
Percy looked at her tenderly and kissed her hand. "I know, Reyna… that's why I ask you… will you marry me when we meet again in the afterlife?"
It was scarce to see tears in the eyes of the daughter of Bellona, but she nodded. "Yes, Percy… I will marry you."
Percy smiled and stood up and grabbed Reyna's cheeks, wiping away her tears.
"Hey," He said. "Look at me. There's no way that pesky goddess can actually kill me."
Reyna sniffed.
"Besides, I will fight with Pluto to come back to you."
Reyna looked up at his face. "Promise?"
"Promise," Percy said with finality.
Reyna smiled and raised her face to meet his lips.
-FLASHBACK-END-
The battle was over with no serious casualties, except for one.
Even Leo had survived, Festus injecting the cure in him at the last moment, reviving the son of Hephaestus.
But, even though his body was never found, for the entire world, Perseus Einar Jackson died on his birthday.
A/N:- So… yeah, that was a little half-assed finale. But it's the best I could come up with at the moment. And I know, it wasn't August at the time of the fight, but I took the liberty of changing and pushing the dates a little back. And, uh… I hope you liked it! The next chapter will be a surprise! I won't disclose what'll happen now that Percy died… but I hope you liked it! I have a really great idea for the next chapter! Just hope I remain alive long enough to write that!
Anyway, bye! Have a nice day!